This invention relates to apparatus for applying dyestuffs and other liquids to moving textile material and, more particularly, to apparatus for printing different patterns on the material and eliminating unprinted spaces on the material between different patterns. The invention also relates to a product having a number of different patterns thereon.
Textile fibers and fabric materials have long been colored with natural and synthetic dyes and, in particular, printed by color decoration of the surface or surfaces of the materials in definite repeated forms and colors to provide a pattern. Such color printing of textile fabrics has been accomplished in various ways. Earlier forms of printing used carved blocks charged with colored paste pressed against the fabric. Subsequently, speed of printing was increased by development of roller printing wherein moving fabrics are sequentially contacted by engraved metal rollers each containing a different color dye to form the desired pattern thereon. Textile fabrics are also printed by sequential contact with screens each having a porous portion of a pattern and carrying a particular color dyestuff.
One disadvantage encountered with conventional printing by machines using rollers or screens is that they are not economically feasible for printing short runs of one pattern. The time and cost involved in assembling and operating a machine with rollers or screens for one pattern requires that a minimum number of this one pattern be printed to make the run profitable. If a customer places an order for less than this minimum number either the order may have to be refused or an expenditure made for storing the extra patterns produced as inventory.
Also, though machines using rollers and screens have increased the speed of textile printing, it still requires considerable time to assemble and disassemble such machines. Once a machine is assembled to print repeats of one pattern, it is not feasible to switch quickly to a new pattern. Thus, for example, if it were important to service the rush order of a customer to print short runs of a number of different patterns, this order might not be able to be completed within the required time period.
In prior U.S. pat. application Ser. No. 683,224, filed May 4, 1976, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,154, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 477,461, filed July 7, 1974, (now abandoned), which application is incorporated by reference herein, there is described apparatus for the printing of textile fabrics. This apparatus includes an electronic control system and is used with a jet printing machine having a series of gun bars, each containing plural dye jets extending across the width of an endless conveyor. The gun bars are spaced along the conveyor, and textile materials are carried by the conveyor past the gun bars where dyes are applied to form a pattern thereon. On each periodic line request, which is a request for data for all gun bars used to print the pattern, the electronic control system receives, from a computer, pattern data for all the gun bars. The system demultiplexes and transmits the data to respective gun bars to control the plural dye jets of the gun bars. Thus, on such line request, each gun bar applies dyestuff to a different line of the textile material in accordance with the pattern information it receives, and when one line of textile material has passed beneath all gun bars the required colors will have been printed for that line.
The apparatus described in the above-mentioned U.S. application Ser. No. 683,224 has been in use for more than a year to produce and sell textile material having patterns thereon. In such use this apparatus prints a predetermined number of repeats of a desired pattern. Though not described in the application Ser. No. 683,224, to finish the last line of the last repeat of the pattern, this last line first passes gun bar #1 where it may receive a color in a section along the line as determined by the pattern data. As this last line then moves towards gun bar #2, gun bar #1 does not do any printing as it has now completed printing the last line, though the other gun bars continue to print the lines of material preceding the last line. When such last line reaches gun bar #2, it may receive a color from this gun bar in a different section of the line and then while this line is moving toward gun bar #3, gun bars #1 and #2 do not print since the last line has passed the latter two. Again, though, the gun bars other than gun bars #1 and #2 may print the lines preceding the last line. This process continues until such last line passes the last gun bar at which time all the gun bars do not print a respective color on the textile material. Similarly, when starting to print the first repeat of a pattern, only when the first line of this first repeat moves under a gun bar is the gun bar activated to apply a respective color to this first line in accordance with the pattern data. Consequently, when completing the printing of a final repeat or starting the printing of a first repeat the gun bars are sequentially deactivated or activated, respectively.
The advantages of the above-described apparatus of application Serial No. 683,224 are that it is possible to print economically a short run of one pattern, and to change quickly and economically from printing a run of one pattern to printing a run of a different pattern. This is because there is no need to assemble and disassemble the machine, including the gun bars, each time a new pattern is to be printed. Pattern data for different patterns is stored in the computer which is suitably programmed to output data to print a predetermined number of repeats of one pattern and then a predetermined number of repeats of another pattern, and so on until the required number of repeats of each pattern is printed. Since only this programming is required, it is economical to print short runs of each of the different patterns, and it is possible to switch quickly from printing one pattern to printing another pattern.
A disadvantage of the above-described apparatus of U.S. Ser. No. 683,224, as a result of the sequential stopping of the gun bars, is that gun bar #1 cannot begin printing a new pattern until the last gun bar used to print the previous pattern stops printing the latter. Consequently, a section of textile material equal to the sum of the distances between all gun bars used for the previous pattern is left unprinted and this results in a waste of valuable textile material.
Such waste is not insubstantial. For example, the apparatus may be programmed to print 3 repeats each of 5 different patterns with the dimensions of each pattern being 90' by 12'. If the sum of the distances between all the gun bars used is about 8'-9', which is typical, for every 3 repeats printed there is a textile loss approximately equivalent to one repeat. The present invention has the advantage of avoiding this waste by printing the first repeat of a new pattern immediately after the last repeat of the previously printed pattern.